point of the Deuteronomic law of the central sanctuary, the great sin of Jeroboam was the establishment of places of worship outside of Jerusalem. In this respect each king of Israel followed the sin of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat. To a few kings of Judah qualified approbation is given, limited by the fact that the high places were not taken away. In only two cases is this limitation omitted, those of Hezekiah and Josiah. The estimate of all the kings is made on purely religious grounds and is determined by the law of the central sanctuary. Thus the Deuteronomic editors put their stamp upon the history of the kingdom from Solomon's reign forward, as completely as they did upon the age of the Judges. They left the book of Kings as the chiefest monument of their zeal. Prophetic principles formulated into law, and burned into the souls of earnest thinkers by the devastation of city and temple, gave new meaning to the national history and led to the second great stage of historical writing in Israel. In our own day the study of sociology and economics has given historians a new point of view from which they are reëxamining the story of the past and emphasizing the hitherto neglected factors. So the prophets of the eighth century B.C. and their successors in the seventh century gave a new point of view for the interpretation of Israel's history. In each age the new light tends to give, for a time, a one-sided view, capable of recognizing only one explanation of all things. The Deuteronomic editors had a new insight into the meaning of history, but their interpretation obscured some of the truth of the old, natural narratives which had had no hard-and-fast interpretation to give. The language and style of Deuteronomy, as well as the thought, colored all that the historians of this age touched. Very much of the general impression made by the prose of the Old Testament is due to this epoch. While the story-telling charm of the earlier age has been lost, earnestness of thought and deep conviction give a solemn rhythm to all that is written. Even some repetitiousness is without wearisomeness where the reach of the thought is such that frequent reiteration is necessary. As in earlier ages, so in this, the Old Testament style is found perfectly adapted to the thought and feeling. The era of "national inexperience" that found its expression in the swift-told tale of heroic adventure is gone forever. The naïve stories of that earlier age win the child and delight all whose life still courses lustily. In the second great era of Israel's historical writing, the stern strength of men who know defeat, but not despair, who know how to fail without selfexcuse, who look back with tense gaze, determined to understand and profit by mistakes, grips and holds the reader of matured conscience. CHAPTER XIX SONGS AND ORACLES OF THE RESTORATION (About 550 to 450 B.C.) IN Babylonia, where the historians of Israel were interpreting the story of their nation in terms of the philosophy of Deuteronomy, political confusion suddenly arose. Following the death of Nebuchadrezzar in 561, three kings ruled in rapid succession and a fourth had already seized the throne, within less than seven years after Nebuchadrezzar's death. For the time, Babylon maintained her great empire, so that the new king was able to dictate who should reign in distant Tyre; but dangers were threatening. The alliance which Nebuchadrezzar had consistently maintained with the Medes was now broken, and this people was crowding down upon Babylon in Mesopotamia, much as the Assyrians had done nine hundred years before. A rebellion against the Medes in the province of Anshan, in northern Elam, resulted in the downfall of the Median king Astyages and gave the rebellious Persian prince, Cyrus of Anshan, the rule of the Medo-Persian empire of which he became the founder. The Babylonian king, Nabonidus, welcomed the conquest of Media as a divine intervention; but soon the upstart Cyrus was threatening Babylon, as Astyages had done. An alliance between Lydia, Sparta the head of the Greek states, and Babylon led Cyrus quickly to his great western campaign, in which he conquered Lydia before the allies could aid. Ezekiel's voice of hope had been stilled for a quarter-century, but the spirit of prophecy needed only some sign among the nations to call forth anew its song of doom and cheer. Now some unnamed prophet-poet sang: Upon a treeless mountain lift up a signal, raise a cry to them, Wave the hand that they may enter the princely gates. I myself have given command to my consecrated ones, to execute my wrath, I have also summoned my heroes, my proudly exultant ones. It is Jehovah of hosts mustering the martial hosts. They are coming from a distant land, from the end of heaven, Jehovah and his instruments of wrath, to destroy the whole earth. Wail, for Jehovah's day is at hand; as destruction from the Almighty Destroyer it comes. Therefore all hands hang down helpless, Therefore every human heart doth melt, and men are dismayed. Behold Jehovah cometh, pitiless, with fury and burning anger, The sun is darkened at his rising, and the moon gives no brilliant light. I will make mortals rarer than gold, and men than the fine gold of Ophir. place, Because of the fury of Jehovah of hosts, and in the fury of his burning anger. And then like a hunted gazelle, or a sheep with none to fold them, by the sword, And their children shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes. Their houses shall be plundered and their wives shall be ravished. Behold, I stir up against them the Medes, Who consider not silver, and take no pleasure in gold, (They lay hold on) bow (and spear, they are cruel), (They break in pieces all) the young men, (and the maidens) shall be dashed in pieces. On children they will look with no pity, they have no compassion on the fruit of the womb, And Babylon, the most beautiful of kingdoms, the proud glory of the Chaldeans shall be, As when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall be uninhabited forever, and tenantless age after age; No nomad shall pitch there his tent, nor shepherds let their flocks lie down there, But wild cats shall lie down here, and their houses shall be full of jackals; Ostriches shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there, Howling beasts shall cry to each other in its castles, and wolves in its revelling halls; Its time is near at hand, its day shall not be extended.1 It was probably the same prophet who sang the mocking dirge over Babylon that recalls so vividly Ezekiel's lament over Egypt.2 Ah! stilled is the tyrant, And stilled is the fury! Broke hath Jehovah the rod of the wicked, Sceptre of despots: Stroke of (the) peoples with passion, Stroke unremitting, Treading in wrath (the) nations, Trampling unceasing. Quiet, at rest, is the whole earth, They break into singing; Even the pines are jubilant for thee, Lebanon's cedars! "Since thou liest low, cometh not up Sheol from under shuddereth at thee All of them answer and say to thee, 1 Isaiah "Thou, too, made flaccid like us, To us hast been levelled! Under thee strewn are (the) maggots, 132-22. Translation from Kent, Apocalypses of Israel's Prophets, pp. 316 ff. Sermons, Epistles, and 2 Page 246. |